1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to micromachined cantilevers and more particularly to physics-based signal processing algorithm for micromachined cantilever arrays.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,981 issued Jun. 1, 1999 to Abdullah Atalar et al and assigned to the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford, Jr. University provides the following state of technology information, “a microcantilever includes a pattern of interdigitated fingers that together form a phase grating. The phase grating is used to sense deflection of the microcantilever. In the pattern, movable fingers alternate with reference fingers. The movable fingers are physically connected to the tip of the microcantilever and move with the cantilever as it deflects; the reference fingers are physically connected to the fixed end of the cantilever and do not move as the cantilever deflects. Each reference finger is bounded on either side by movable fingers, and each movable finger is bounded on either side by a reference finger (ignoring the fingers at the ends of the pattern).”
U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0120577 by Igor Touzov published Jun. 24, 2004 provides the following state of technology information, “Development of diverse set of applications that employs micro and nano scale properties of matter created equally wide range of equipment that is able to operate at such small scales. One of primary advantages of such technologies is the ability to efficiently and cheaply employ parallel processing for large number of entities. These parallel technologies have been developed for processing of thousands and even millions of chemicals on a single microfluidic/microarray device. Microoptical devices accounts several millions of parallel processing channels suitable for diverse tasks such as maskless lithography, printing, network switching, etc. Micromechanical and micro-electro mechanicals systems are capable of simultaneous execution of thousands and sometimes millions of simultaneous mechanical operations required for microfluidics, microoptics and micromachining.”
The article “Micromechanical Cantilever-based Biosensors” by Roberto Raiteri, Massimo Grattarola, Hans-Jürgen Butt, and Petr Skládal in Sensors and Actuators B:Chemical, Volume 79, Issues 2-3, Oct. 15, 2001, pages 115-126 provides the following state of technology information, “Microcantilevers can transduce a chemical signal into a mechanical motion with high sensitivity.” Generally, biosensing is a more demanding task than physical or chemical sensing because of the complexity of the biochemical processes involved and the nature of the operation environment. Biosensors have attracted considerable interest in the last few years since the monitoring of a specific substance is central in many applications ranging from clinical analysis to environmental control and for monitoring many industrial processes. A biosensor, as any other sensing device, can be divided into three main components: a detector which recognizes the signal of interest, a transducer which converts the signal into a more useful output, typically an electronic signal, and a read-out system which filters, amplifies, displays, records, or transmits the transduced signal. A biosensor employs a biological or biochemical detector, which can range from single proteins and enzymes up to whole cells and microorganisms. In biosensing applications, detection is usually carried out in a liquid (aqueous) environment. Flow and mixing of the solution cause turbulence which directly affects cantilever deflection. Additional drifts in deflection have been observed. They can be due to both slow electrochemical processes on either side of the cantilever and to rearrangements of the sensing surface, which is usually composed by multilayers of complex molecules like proteins.